big daddy | the m0vie blog

Non-Review Review: Just Go With It

Posted on February 10, 2012 by Darren

I have to concede, I think Adam Sandler is sort of struggling through something a transitional stage of his career. We’re past the point where Sandler can so easily play the angry young man who defined films like Billy Madison or Happy Gilmore or Big Daddy, so we’re faced with an actor trying reconcile himself with that fact. Now, it seems the actor is preoccupied with the idea of finally growing up – as we see in films like Grown Ups and Just Go With It. The problem is that Sandler isn’t nearly as convincing or as interesting as a mellowing out man instead of an acting-out manchild.

Divorced from reality...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: adam sandler, big daddy, Billy Madison, Candy Land, candyland, film, Gilmore, grown ups, happy gilmore, jennifer aniston, jim carrey, Just Go with It, nicole kidman, non-review review, Punch Drunk Love, review, Sandler, Saturday Night Live | 5 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Funny People

Posted on September 9, 2010 by Darren

Funny People is the very definition of “self-indulgent”. It’s a series of comedians from both the big leagues – movie stars – and the smaller circles – the improv stand-up circuit – reflecting on how difficult life is for an entertainer. Be it the generalisation that showbiz types are all cynical and disconnected to the point of being anhedonic, or the observation that fame and success typically come with a high personal cost. Of course, coming from director Judd Atapow – who carved out his earlier career with comedies centred on everyman (okay, maybe “slacker”) types like Knocked-Up or The Forty-Year-Old Virgin – a film about the types of circles that he moved in was a risky venture, one which would definitely represent a move away from the “common man” appeal of his earlier films. And at least those films had the gift of brevity.

My girlfriend would like you all to know that apparently I wear shirts like this...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: actor, adam sandler, big daddy, comedy, eric bana, funny people, George Simmons, happy gilmore, judd atapow, non-review review, review, seth rogan, the 40-year-old virgin, the forty-year-old virgin | 6 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Grown Ups

Posted on August 26, 2010 by Darren

It’s very difficult to offer a movie that takes a cynical “Hollywood type” back to their roots. There are many reasons. The most obvious is that the type of person making the movie is a cynical Hollywood type and there’s something of an irony about making a film about the roots they’ve lost contact with – oftentimes it is more difficult to offer a grounded version of reality than it is to depict an alien invasion or a thoroughly ridiculous premise. Grown Ups is the second film this year which sees Adam Sandler playing a character attempting to reconnect with the common man – perhaps a timely theme in light of the recession, when the glitz and glamour of Hollywood stand in even starker contrast to the day-to-day lives of regular folks. However, if I didn’t know better, I’d think Sandler (whose production company produced the film and who co-wrote the script) is having something of a midlife crisis.

Not exactly a deep pool of talent...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: adam sandler, big daddy, Chris Rock, comedy, David Spade, films, grown ups, happy madison, hicks, hollywood, kevin james, Movies, non-review review, review, Rob Schneider, roots, salma hayek, steve buscemi | 4 Comments »

Kick-Ass

Posted on June 9, 2010 by Darren

Remember how I said during my review of The Ultimates that Mark Millar was a love ‘im or hate ‘im writer, sometimes within the same work? Well, Kick-Ass offers Millar at his best and at his worst. He gets the superhero genre, understands why and how it works the way it does. That’s why he’s so good at deconstructing and reconstructing it. He grasps the escapism element and knows his target audience like the back of his hand. However, he’s a writer who refuses to ever accept that there is such a thing as “too far”. There is no taste, there is no top to go over. But, more than that, there’s no restraint. And there’s the problem with Kick-Ass: for a novel so interested in giving us a relatable protagonist and heroes grounded in “the real world”, it’s too absurdist to really work.

"They should call him ass-kick..."

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: big daddy, comic book, controversy, film, graphic novel, hit girl, john romita, kick-ass, mark millar | 10 Comments »

(Big) Daddy’s (Hit) Girl: Kick-Ass Controversy & The Art of Completely Missing the Point…

Posted on April 6, 2010 by Darren

Last week I remarked on how ridiculous it was that people were getting freaked out by the use of a certain c-word (and, no, it’s not a misspelling of the words “kick ass”) by a certain pint-sized assassin in a certain superhero spoof movie. In said article, I had the audacity to state that – although I wouldn’t agree with it – I could understand if they were upset by the gratuitous violence the little kid commits, rather than her choice of language. It appears my appeals to sanity within the moral guardian community has been somewhat answered and various commentators have begun decrying Kick-Ass for the way it treats and portrays Hit Girl, the eleven-year-old sidekick to wannabe Batman by the name of Big Daddy.

Opening Soon: The Nicolas Cage School of Parenting - Enroll Now!

Note: This article contains slight spoilers for the movie and probably bigger spoilers for the graphic novel. You have been warned. But don’t worry, if you want to wait to see the film, this article will be here when you get back.

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Filed under: Comics, Movies | Tagged: all-star batman and robin, batman, batman & robin, big daddy, comic books, hit girl, kick-ass, lecturing, mark millar, moral outrage, morality, Movies, robin, sidekicks | 7 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Kick-Ass

Posted on April 1, 2010 by Darren

Kick-Ass may be the action movie of the year. It will more than likely be the comedy of year. And it is currently among the best movies I’ve seen so far (and it’s been a very good March, might I add). Kick-Ass does what Watchmen should have, and takes superhero movies to the next level: working on the assumption that the genre is so well recognised that audiences will appreciate all the tiny little tropes, Kick-Ass picks apart the big budget superhero flick, but manages to avoid being mean.